Australia says women on 10 flights strip-searched at Qatari airport ‘after baby abandoned in bin’

Australia says women on 10 flights strip-searched at Qatari airport ‘after baby abandoned in bin’

Australia on Wednesday said that female passengers from as many as 10 aircraft flying out of Qatar this month were invasively searched by authorities looking for the mother an abandoned newborn baby.The revelation from Australia's foreign minister Marise Payne greatly expands the number of women believed to have been subjected to searches during the incident, which was first reported to involve a single Sydney-bound flight.Ms Payne informed a Senate committee that 18 women, including 13 Australian citizens, were searched on that Qatar Airways flight on 2 October. It raises the prospect that women of multiple other nationalities are involved, with AFP reporting that at least one French citizen was searched. Australia has said it is working with “two or three” other countries to raise concerns about the incident through diplomatic channels. The